Good morning, Simple Homeschool readers! I’m taking you along on a typical day in our homeschool. Are you ready?

This is the fourth time I’ve shared our day in the life here. It is always interesting to me to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. Writing these posts is kind of a digital time capsule and it’s fun to look back.

My kids range in age from six to sixteen. It’s an interesting time at the Fleck household as we combine kindergarten through highschool.

In our house, December is a time we set aside our regular schoolwork and dedicate ourselves to seasonal activities and celebrations.

But before you tuck away your homeschool for the calendar year, here are a few things to do that you will be thanking yourself for when you start lessons again:

1. Catch up with that paperwork

I have reading lists for four kids that need updating, assignments that need to be filed away in the appropriate kid’s binder, artwork that needs to be documented and then recycled, and various other record keeping tasks.

I find it harder to keep up with these tasks on the days we have lessons and somehow the weekends just never seem to mesh with this kind of bookkeeping. A dedicated hour or two in December should be enough to catch me back up again.[Read more…]

One of this homeschooling mom’s favorite things about YouTube is that it is available any time. Have a load of laundry to fold? Ten spare minutes with the morning coffee? Need some company while you’re doing your Sunday evening homeschool prep? Hello, YouTube!

While I do dearly love blogs and websites, sometimes it helps me to actually see and hear another person explaining something or showing how they use a resource. I’ve had more than one “ah ha!” moment thanks to YouTube.

Homeschool YouTube Channels

Here are a few of the YouTubers whose content I’m always happy to add to my Watch Later playlist:

If the past ten years of homeschooling have taught me anything, it’s that our years go much smoother when I have a plan.

Whether it is a rough outline or a detailed map, I value having a guide to our year – something more meaningful to me as the kids are growing up, the lessons become more advanced, and this mama (and her brain) are getting older.

I’m not a naturally organized person, but I feel planning is a good complement to the rather relaxed and flexible way we approach most of the living and learning in our home. Coffee and my wits will only get me so far, but a plan can help to clarify our daily goals and keep this homeschool machine running smoothly.

So, what does my process look like? It might not be pretty, but here is my real, tried, and true method for homeschool planning:[Read more…]